So, here I come!
After taking into consideration several things, I'm upping the rating of the story to M. Sorry to those who read this because it's a T.
Beta'ed by: Lady Spritzy and aqua-empress.
Disclaimer: not mine, Eichiro Oda, Rihito Takarai and Tachibana Venio(2nd author of the manga) .
"I hope you know what you're doing," the boy in front of him said doubtfully, bowing.
Marco observed the posture of his sparring partner. He saw the boy relax, breathing steadily, calming down. It was an eerie calm before the storm. Marco fought every single one of his kouhai, so he knew their style and patterns. What he was seeing in front of him was something totally different. It wasn't the usual Ace, this was somebody else. Somebody who fought countless battles, who didn't need to see his surroundings, who felt them instead. Interesting.
Marco was surprised when Ace attacked him. He didn't see it coming, but he blocked the attack and tried to get a hold of Ace. The boy was fast, faster than usual, but Marco wasn't fighting to his fullest either. He knew he was being tested. Ace shifted subtly, and Marco knew the testing was over. Ace got hold of his arm, but Marco freed it and grabbed Ace's collar. Marco didn't foresee what happened next. Ace moved as a blur, grabbing Marco's hand, turning and throwing Marco over his back.
Marco didn't have time to catch his breath as his back hit the floor. Ace hit him with his elbow in the solar plexus, making Marco curl and gasp for air, but he kept his eyes on Ace. The boy returned to his starting position. Marco saw the coach come to Ace from behind and tap on Ace's shoulder. Marco sat up, watching intently. Ace moved with astounding speed, as he hit the coach twice in the stomach and added a roundhouse to the shoulder, sending the coach to the floor. Marco got to his feet, as he watched Ace return to his starting position.
He took a step forward, palms out in a calming gesture, but Ace lashed out at him. This time Marco didn't underestimate his opponent. This wasn't even a judo fight anymore. For whatever reason, Ace was apparently fighting for his life. The whole dojo was watching them now, as they blocked, kicked, landed hits and evaded each other's attacks. It had been a long while since Marco got to fight all-out like this. Last time was when Robin got pissed at him and fought him without holding back.
It was fun. The longer they fought, the better they got to know each other. Marco noticed a pattern in Ace's movements, or, at least, he thought it to be a pattern. From time to time Ace made a little grabbing motion as if there was something missing, like a stick or a spear. It only intensified Marco's attention on Ace: if there was one pattern, there would definitely be more.
The fight dragged on, with only the sound of the two fighters filling the air. Finally Marco saw an opening. He had to trust his instincts and not his head, which was yelling that it was a trap. He used the opening as his instincts told him to, getting Ace flat on his stomach on the tatami, his arms held in a lock by Marco, who was sitting on Ace's back. To say that Ace gave up without a fight would be an understatement of the year. Ace thrashed under Marco like a cornered wild animal. The whole situation looked ridiculously like a rodeo Marco once saw on the TV.
"Hey now, I know you want to win, but I'm not up for round three for the next half an hour, so quit struggling," Marco said, breathing heavily.
He felt Ace relax under him and warily ask:
"Marco-sempai?"
Marco's instincts told him that it was safe to let go, so he released Ace and rose.
"Yeah. I knew I was right to use food as a trigger," Marco chuckled, holding out his hand to Ace.
The boy turned around, sitting up. He stared, unsure, at the hand, but accepted it. Marco pulled Ace up to his feet and a scattered applause started, tentative at first, but stronger and louder by the second. The coach walked over to them, clapping as well.
"You two can go now, you earned it," the coach said to them. "The rest of you, start again!"
Marco had to drag Ace out of the dojo, because the latter was dazed and unfocused. They got to the changing room and Marco released the boy.
"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" Marco heard Ace ask as he was stripping to go to the shower.
"You kicked coach pretty hard, but I think he's fine," Marco shrugged as he grabbed his towel and headed towards the shower. "By the way, you earned that buffet. I misjudged you in the first round. I guess this shines a new light on 'everything for food'."
Marco turned on the water, standing out of its way – he knew these showers all too well - he'd either get a frostbite or a burn, if he stood under the water. This time it would have been a frostbite, so Marco adjusted the temperature and stepped under the shower. He closed his eyes and raised his face to the water, sighing in content. It had been a good training session - his body hadn't ached like that in ages. Marco heard Ace walk into the showers, taking one next to him – showers were divided by walls, up to Marco's elbow.
"You are quiet," Marco noticed, as he grabbed his shampoo. When he didn't get a reply, he asked, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"The Grey Terminal…" Ace mumbled, fixing his shower temperature.
"Where's that? Never heard of it," Marco looked at Ace curiously.
"Outside the East Blue district," Ace closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair.
"Is that a school?"
"In a way, sure."
Marco raised his eyebrows at that. It sounded as if Ace didn't really want him to know what it was. Well, he'd find out eventually. They showered in silence, in Ace's case it was somewhat depressed silence.
"So, when do you want to collect your prize?" Marco made another attempt to get Ace talking once they were in the changing room. As they dressed, Marco couldn't help but inspect Ace's body. It wasn't hard, since the boy was distracted and wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Marco liked what he saw – defined muscles flexing under the skin as Ace moved, lean, trained body… Marco liked it a lot. His previous anger at Ace long forgotten, he was busy enjoying the view the boy provided while he put on his pants.
"What prize? I lost," Ace grumbled as he leaned down for the white singlet he wore under the school shirt.
"Not the first round," Marco swallowed as he continued to stare at the boy in front of him. Damn, he looked good.
"Huh?" Ace turned around, staring at Marco in disbelief, who hastily put on his own pants. "No, I didn't!"
"So it wasn't you who hit my solar plexus with your elbow?" Marco put on his black t-shirt, but stopped and pointed to the forming bruise. Ace stared at the spot, but caught himself and turned around, but Marco still noticed slight blush on the other's face. "Thought so. So, when are you collecting your prize? Anytime is fine."
The boy continued to gather his things, not looking at Marco, so Marco walked over to him and cleared his throat.
"If not today, how about we exchange phone numbers, so you can give me a call whenever you want it?" Marco suggested.
Ace looked hesitant, but took out his mobile and wrote down Marco's contact information. Marco did the same with Ace's number.
"Good," Marco smiled. "Feel free to call me any time of the day."
Ace nodded as he packed his uniform and said goodbye, leaving quickly. Marco sighed, packing his own stuff. There was something wrong with that kid. He looked scared stiff, but not of Marco. It was more like he was afraid of himself. Marco recognised the look alright, after all, he wasn't too different. He was grateful to Pops, for teaching him to control his strength and to keep his emotions under control. Thanks to Pops, Marco didn't slip for the last five years. He fixed his grades and even got as far as Enies Lobby, something that people at the orphanage thought impossible. Everybody that Pops took in was considered a hopeless case, good for nothing, scum.… He helped them to set things right, to prove themselves, to start anew.
Marco actually sent a copy of his scholarship to the orphanage, to show them how wrong they were. Of course, they didn't believe him until he came over in his new school uniform and showed them his new school identification card. The look on their faces had been priceless. Former problem child, bully and basically worthless waste of space has turned into a model student, all thanks to one man who just gave him a chance. Frankly, Marco would never even begin to be able to repay Pops. What he could do, though, was to guarantee Pops wouldn't regret his decision.
Marco walked to the bus stop slowly. He was calm and content with his life. He turned a corner, surprised to see Ace talking on his cell.
"No, I'll come over, it's not a problem. What are you talking about, Dadan? My homework will be fine, I'll just drop by and help out. Will you stop that? No, Luffy won't be coming, I finished early today. What should I get you? Will you shut it, I'm dropping by the convenience store anyway. Yeah, see you in an hour." Ace pressed the end call button and as he put his phone away, he looked up to see Marco's curious expression.
"Who was that?" Marco asked, not expecting an answer. After all, he was sticking his nose into another person's business.
"Someone I know broke her leg, the idiot, and she needs some help around the house. Nobody will be home until later," Ace sighed.
"Oh.…" Marco raised an eyebrow at that. There was a slight awkward silence.
"Well, see you around, sempai," Ace waved his hand and ran off.
Marco stared after him, frowning. Was it him, or did his boyfriend (albeit only for this week) just ran off to meet a woman? Robin's face flashed in his mind, as Marco shook his head. He shouldn't be jealous without any good reason. Wait, why would he be jealous? Marco walked to the bus stop, sighing, surprised with himself. Yeah, the boy had one painfully hot body, a matching face and, most importantly, was one hell of a fighter… Wait, what was he wondering about? Ah, right, it felt really good, when he pinned Ace down in the dojo… He wasn't thinking about that at the time, but looking back… Despite keikogi being in the way, he could feel Ace's nice body very well and he got a good look in the changing room…
Marco blinked as his bus pulled up before him. That was a new development, for sure. Not the buss, Ace. Marco stepped into the bus and took an empty seat by the window, deep in thought. He'd really like to pin Ace down, but without any annoying clothes in his way. Marco stirred once again – what the hell was wrong with him? Still, it would have been amazing, really… Feeling that body against him, as he bent down to kiss Ace's neck and shoulders, one hand holding down Ace's hands, the other sneaking down to stroke Ace's already hard member, at the same time as his own rubbed against that amazing ass he had privilege to see in the changing room…
Marco's eyes flew open, as he stared, horrified, in front of him. He did not just imagine that! He wasn't even aware of the boy this morning, something must be seriously wrong with him. Marco stared out the window, counting white cars and trying not to think about two things – the raven-haired boy with blinding smile and a certain problem, which only became harder when he thought about the origins of it. Somehow he had the feeling that this week wouldn't be as easy as he thought it to be. More like punishment for the crimes he committed before Pops took him in. Given, that there was one hell of a long list of those, the retribution was going to be a bitch. Marco could barely sit in place until his stop came. He flew out of the bus and ran to his house. He needed one frigid shower, right now.
His house was five hundred metres from the bus stop and stood out like a white crow among its black brethren. It was four storeys high, made of bricks and had a white roof. Inside, each floor had five rooms and two bathrooms, with the first floor also containing the kitchen, dining room, two living rooms, laundry room and pantry. While there was no cellar, there was an attic. On the fifth floor lived Pops with the biggest bedroom and a private bathroom, Marco, Thatch, Vista and Jozu, who each had decent sized rooms and shared a bathroom. On the third floor lived Blamenco, Rakuyo, Namur, Blenheim and Curiel. The second floor was occupied by Kingdew, Atmos, Jiru and Fossa, Haruta and Izo shared a room, being the youngest. Marco thought that he'd have to move to the attic or move out soon – Haruta and Izo were old enough to have their own rooms.
Marco literally sneaked to the door and cracked it open carefully. Pops was almost always at home as he was retired and had some health issues, but he was the last on the list of the people Marco didn't want to see in his current state. He really didn't want to end up in an interrogation before he got a chance to go and take a shower.
He flew up the stairs as silently as possible, knowing all too well which stairs creaked and which were safe. Marco got to the fourth floor and went straight for his room. His biggest advantage was that he came home early and nobody expected that. He grabbed a change of clothes and sneaked to the bathroom, which, thankfully, was empty. Marco locked the door and could finally exhale. Now, to face his problem at hand. Marco glared at himself in the mirror – this was not like him. He didn't lose control that easily, even if it was one hell of a good fight and Ace was oh so tempting.
"Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!" Marco growled to himself as he took off his clothes and got into the shower. The problem was still present and didn't seem to be going away anytime soon, so he turned on the shower, setting it on the coldest possible.
The water was ice cold, but it served its purpose – Marco exhaled as his problem shrank. If this was going to continue being an issue, he would probably have to consider calling in sick.
After the shower Marco went down to the kitchen to get some food before he had to start doing his homework for tomorrow. As he expected, the old man was in the kitchen, sitting in his chair and drinking tea as he read the newspaper.
"You're early, kid," the man lifted his eyes from the paper and looked at Marco.
"The coach let me go early," Marco shrugged.
"That so?" Marco knew he was supposed to elaborate, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he just shrugged as he looked into the fridge. There wasn't any food he could just warm up and eat, so he decided on making spaghetti with tomatoes and feta-cheese. Preparing the things he needed for cooking, he felt the old man's ever-watchful eyes on him.
"Something bothering you, kid?" the old man asked, when Marco put the spaghetti into the water.
Marco thought about it for a moment. Then he remembered he had questions, that needed answers, so he could ask them now just as well.
"Have you ever heard of Grey Terminal?" Marco asked.
"What about it?" Pops asked.
"Well, a friend of mine said it was kind of like school, so…" Marco didn't finish as his old man started laughing loudly after he heard the word 'school'. "I take it that it's not," Marco said, as he washed tomatoes.
"Your friend has one damn good sense of humour…" the old man chuckled. "You can sure look at it that way, but no, it's not a school. It's not a place you want to end up, 'cause that's one fast way to get mugged, raped or killed." Marco stared at Pops with wide eyes, tomatoes completely forgotten. Meanwhile, Pops continued. "It's at the foot of mount Corvo, and you don't want to go there either, 'cause there are real thugs up on that mountain. If down at the Grey Terminal they have just unfortunate people mixed with scum, on that mountain there are real cutthroats, who would kill you without as much as blinking. You can call it survival school, if you'd like that."
Marco blinked, completely confused. What could Ace be possibly doing in such a place was beyond his comprehension.
"How did Grey Terminal came up in the conversation?" Pops asked, frowning.
"I asked him where he learned to fight, and he said Grey Terminal," Marco answered, back to washing and cutting tomatoes.
"That so? Then you have one interesting friend, kid. No one comes to the Grey Terminal willingly, just as nobody wants their kids to end up at Impel Down."
"Is it really that bad?" Marco took out a frying pan and put it on the stove, happy that he had his back to Pops – his face was that of complete horror. He had been well on his way to Impel Down before Pops came into the picture. There was only one thing he could think when Impel Down was mentioned, and that was 'they won't take me alive'.
Impel Down was an institution for 'troubled' teenagers. They called it that, but Marco knew better, since he had gotten a tour through the place while he was still at the orphanage. It was a lot like the concentration camps from the WWII, only cleaner. All in all, Marco rather be dead than come there again.
"Well, don't you sound like a spoiled brat, kid… And no, it's not as bad as Impel Down. It's much worse. At Impel Down they have rules, but in the Grey Terminal it's absolute anarchy. Is that friend of yours from your school?"
"Yeah, he's in my club…" Marco answered; he flinched when Pops called him a spoiled brat. That was exactly what he accused Ace of being, when in reality, he knew nothing about him. Marco had made assumptions and believed in them as if it was the sole truth.
"That so? Well, I sure hope you are nice to that kid, he's been through some tough shit for sure."
Marco hummed, nodding, as he put the tomatoes on the frying pan. He had a lot to think about and none of it was pleasant. He frowned – he didn't like that he jumped to conclusions. At least he kind of understood why Ace didn't go to Mariejois - he would sure feel out of place there, where everybody (he's jumping to assumptions again, damn it) had anything they wanted brought to them on silver platter. Fine, maybe not everybody, but definitely vast majority.
Marco finished cooking and ate quickly in silence – the old man went upstairs to take a nap right after he told Marco to be nice to Ace and nobody else came down. Marco was fine with that though, as he wouldn't be much of a company anyway. After he ate and washed the dishes after himself, he went back to his room and started his homework.
As always, there was a lot of it, so Marco took breaks when he needed to keep his concentration. When he was done it was around eight o'clock in the evening. Marco pushed his books away from him tiredly and reached for his old laptop. The only thing it was good for was surfing the net and writing essays, which was fine as Marco didn't have time for computer games. He only ever occasionally played Minesweeper, which was built in.
He opened the laptop and turned it on. Then Marco got up from the chair and went down to the kitchen – it took really long time for his laptop to fire up. The kitchen was empty, which was odd, but Marco didn't mind it. He looked through the fridge, but it was completely empty, meaning that most of the people in the house were out buying food. Marco fished his mobile from his pocket and called Thatch.
"Yeah?" Thatch answered pretty quickly, only after three tones.
"You out shopping?" Marco asked, thoughtfully looking at the empty fridge.
"Yeah, you need something?"
"I just wanted a snack and the fridge is totally raided," Marco said as he closed it and sat down on one of the chairs.
"What did you expect? Anyways, we didn't wanna bother you, but Izo baked some muffins and we left you a couple to keep you alive until we get back with food," Thatch answered.
"And where did you hide them?"
"They should be in the oven, so look there. If you can't find them, then you'll have to starve until we get back."
"Thanks," Marco sighed and ended the call.
He went to the stove and, luckily for him, there were three raspberry muffins there, waiting for him. Deciding that the tea would go well with them, he put some water on to boil. Taking the biggest mug he could find (and it was a BIG one), he picked the tea and waited for the water. Soon enough he had a brick with a mug of black tea and three raspberry muffins to carry up to his room.
By that time his laptop was good enough to use it, so he got himself comfortable in his convertible sofa and logged in on facebook. After typing Portgas in the search engine the second time this day, Marco felt a lot like a stalker. There was a status update from Ace, just a couple of minutes ago: 'Spent the day at Dadan's :) have been doing chores all day :( homework can go to hell, I'm going to bed'.
The first comment was Luffy's:
'I think dadan looks like nami :D'
'lol XD' - Ace.
'rofl X'D' - Sabo.
'take that back!' – Nami.
Marco frowned. If Ace spent the rest of his day doing chores for a woman who looked like Nami, why did he ask him out? Of course, there was a possibility of them being just friends, but that did little to ease the weird feeling in Marco's chest. Then Marco saw that Ace shared Sabo's status with a link. 'Last week's session is up, the crew did a great job as always. Thanks for doing this, it means a lot to me.'
Marco raised his eyebrows – it sounded very cryptic, so he followed the link to see what this was all about. The link led to a picture gallery on a website, which seemed to belong to a fashion brand called 'Criminal'. The logo was a star with stitches across it, reminding Marco of Zoro's scar.
Slightly curious, Marco selected the first picture. His eyes widened a lot and he choked on the muffin, when he saw, who was on that picture. It just had to be Ace, wearing faded jeans, light blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, dark-grey waistcoat, blue converse sneakers and a black fedora on his head. To make everything even stranger, he was somewhere in the city – Marco recognised the brick road and older buildings, - in the middle of a street with occasional passer-by's. To top everything off, Ace was in mid-jump. Ace's left side was to the camera, as he hovered almost a meter off the ground, knees up almost to his chest, the right one slightly higher than the left one, his left arm extended back with a black leather bracelet on the wrist, his right hand holding the fedora in place, but it slid down, covering the forehead. Ace's face was turned to camera only a little bit, but enough to see a smile on his lips and one grey eye, peaking at the camera from under the fedora. Marco had to admit – Ace looked good. More like awesome. Or hot. What more, he looked like he knew what he was doing, judging by the effortlessness of the smile and chosen angle.
Marco pressed on the arrow, to the next picture and there was Ace, again. He was jumping as well, but this was totally different. Ace's left hand was touching the ground, his right holding the hat in place. It looked like he was caught in the middle of somersault, his legs bent at the knees and the shirt slid down, revealing a lot of nicely toned stomach and the v-shaped muscle, as it was cut off by the jeans.
Next picture was again Ace, this time just strolling down the street, looking relaxed, the fedora was gone and his hands were in the front pockets of the jeans. Ace looked away from camera to his right, smiling. Next picture was different – it was Ace with Luffy on his back, both grinning at the camera. After that came a couple of pictures of Luffy alone, and then came a picture of Ace and Robin, walking hand in hand, talking to each other. After that – Ace walked between Nami and Robin, all three of them looking stunning. There were a couple of pictures of Luffy with each of the girls and then came Ace again, this time with Zoro. Zoro was ruffling Ace's hair as Ace was laughing and trying to get away from Zoro.
All in all, there were six of them – Ace, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Zoro and Sanji. Every single one of them looked like they knew what they were doing, confident in front of the camera. Apparently, they wore the clothes from the brand, as there was a small logo in the bottom right corner of every picture. In the bottom left corner, there was a small top hat and under every photo was a link to another website, which Marco typed hesitantly.
He was met by a video. Large white cursive letters on black stated: "The Top Hat Studio presents Firefish (there was a picture of Ace, taken in a studio, as he was smiling widely at the camera), Mugiwara (followed by a picture of Luffy), Cat Burglar (Nami), Devil Child (Robin), Kenshi (Zoro), All-Blue (Sanji), Empress (there was a picture of stunningly beautiful young woman with long black hair and dark blue eyes, wearing golden earrings in form of snakes), Surgeon (the boy on the picture was the same one as on Ace's page, the one who looked like he haven't slept in several weeks) and Tanuki (another boy from Ace's page, the small one with messy brown hair and big brown eyes). Welcome!"
After five minutes of browsing on the website, namely the pictures under the tab Firefish, Marco closed his laptop angrily, damn sure that he'll be having some very interesting dreams at night, the ones that needed a follow-up in form of a frigid shower on the next morning.
Yes, I am aware it says Firefish, I did it on purpose XD
Thanks again for the reviews and favourites and follows.
Rhe.
